4 eggs

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

2/3 cup all-purpose flour

3 tablespoons butter, melted and

cooled but still liquid

1 10-inch tart pan, preferably with a

removable bottom

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease and flour the tart pan. Melt butter in a saucepan and cool while you proceed with recipe.

Beat eggs in a mixing bowl with a hand-held electric beater until they are light and lemon-colored. Add the sugar, 1/4 cup at a time, and beat well after each addition. After the sugar is in, continue beating about five to 10 minutes until you can dribble some of the mixture from the beater onto the remainder in the bowl and leave a "trail" that doesn't sink. Add the vanilla. With a wire whisk, gently fold in flour, and finally the butter.

Pour the mixture into the tart pan and bake 20 to 21 minutes or until the cake has pulled away from the sides of the pan and the center springs back when pressed (or test with a cake tester in the middle).

Cool the cake for 10 minutes. If the sides of the cake haven't pulled away from the pan, gently separate the cake from the pan with the tip of a paring knife. Lift the cake out of the sides. Then gently loosen the bottom of the cake from the pan with a long, flat thin knife and move the cake to a cake plate. Let the cake on the plate cool completely on a rack before topping with fruit and glaze.

Yield: 1 10-inch cake tart

Source: Kathie Smith

First Published June 7, 2006, 12:56 p.m.